D’Antonio, Jennings confidant, joins McCoy’s administration

D’Antonio, third from left, was a close ally of former Mayor Jerry Jennings.

Today is former Albany Recreation Commissioner John D’Antonio’s first day as deputy public works commissioner for County Executive Dan McCoy.

D’Antonio, a close friend of former Mayor Jerry Jennings, is taking the spot of former Deputy DPW Commissioner Paul Engel, who on Aug. 11 was confirmed as the new director of employee relations in the Human Resources Department.

D’Antonio spent less than eight months away from local government after Jennings left office in December.

He briefly landed a job with the state Athletic Commission, serving as an $85,000-a-year athletic activities assistant after being appointed April 10, said Edison Albans, a spokesman for the state Department of State, which oversees the commission.

The move made sense: One of D’Antonio’s pet programs with the city was Albany’s popular Quail Street boxing gym, making the commission — which regulates boxing in the state — a seemingly natural jump.

But D’Antonio resigned that post July 30. His jump to the county had been rumored to be in the works for weeks. He will make $81,000 as deputy commissioner, county spokeswoman Mary Rozak said. Engel had been making $73,950 in the job, Rozak said.

D’Antonio’s work with the city boxing gym was well-regarded (as detailed in this story by my colleague Pete Iorizzo). But there was also this strange 2012 encounter— related to punches, but not the gym — in which one of his employees was charged with assaulting him in Recreation Department headquarters on Hoffman Avenue. D’Antonio, not a small man, weathered the incident fine. (The case against the employee is still pending in city court, according to the clerk’s office.)

D’Antonio’s brother, former city Department of General Services Commissioner Nicholas D’Antonio, left the Jennings administration late last year to become deputy director for real property and facilities for the state Office of General Services.